In “What Scattered Ashes Leave behind: Expressions of Nuyorican Identity in Miguel Piñero’s A Lower East Side Poem”, Marcia Alesan Dawkins provides the reader with a look at the various tones involving ethnicity and the “American Dream” within the poem “A Lower East Side”. Dawkins first discusses Pinero’ background and how his incarceration in prison. Dawkins lists the acclaimed works Pinero wrote, and how much of it involved various “street life” themes. Dawkins argues that Pinero held that kind of life dear to him, and made it a common theme in his work despite being becoming successful as a result of said work. The author shares her thinking that Pinero is showing the difficulty for many groups in America to achieve the “American Dream”.…show more content… It is mentioned that the poem’s structure is purposely represents a map which, the author says, is a sort of metaphor for the poems subject gaining a new perspective. Dawkins then analyzes the parts of the poem line by line to further support this idea of perspective playing a metaphoric role with a map. The authors ultimate conclusion is that “A lower East Side” is in fact Pinero’s will. Dawkins ends by discussing how the poem is important in representing the Nuyorican
